Azwel
|series = Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time |villain = yes |type = Leader/Anti-Villain |affiliation = Aval Organization (formerly; defected) Himself |homeworld = Earth (World of Soulcalibur) |firstepisode = Aval Organization ~A.D. 1584~ |lastepisode = A.D. 2019: Azwel's Last Wish |numberofepisodes = 26 |cast = Taliesin Jaffe (English) }} 1= on the brink of death abandon their sense of reason for despair or hope! It is like the sweetest method to me! I could never grow tired of the human race!|Azwel|Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time}} |-| 2= |-| 3= doing this? How could you deprive mankind of their freedom and their future?!|Azwel voicing his anger over Oma Zi-O's tyranny and oppression towards humanity|Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time}} is a character from the Soul series fighting games, originating from the rebooted timeline of Soulcalibur VI. He appears in Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time as one of the main antagonists in the second season. History :Main article: Azwel A mysterious, highly intelligent, self-proclaimed anthropologist and philosopher from the Holy Roman Empire. Azwel wields a pair of gauntlets, one that utilizes a fragment of the demonic sword Soul Edge, and another that utilizes a fragment of the holy sword Soul Calibur. These gauntlets allow him to harness both swords' energies in order to create physical manifestations of the various weapons and fighting styles they have experienced. Fascinated by the effects of the Evil Seed which caused humans to become Malfested, transforming them into beings with enhanced abilities, Azwel has set a grand, insane plan into motion in the hopes of recreating this phenomenon, but under his own terms. His goal is to use his "Ultimate Seed" in order to evolve humanity, believing that it is the next step in the road towards evolution. Traveling 400 years into the future :''NOTE: All of these events take place sometime after the Libra of Souls and in Raphael Sorel's secret ending in the game.'' Another Skyrider, Another Super-1, and Another Stronger 1= to join him.|Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time}} |-| 2= |-| 3= gave to me. Compared to my device imbued by the shards of the cursed and spirit swords, this power is enjoyable to use! I have to admit, this is my first time I have the power to control time!|Azwel in awe of his newfound time manipulation abilities.|Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time}} |-| 4= . Starting from this day onward, you shall all become my disciples in my goal to save the human race. My will shall be done. I shall guide humanity to a future free from conflict, suffering, strife, and pestilence! For, I, Azwel shall be the Leader of Humanity and establish a new world order!|Azwel addressing his captives: the .|Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time}} Azwel witnessed the aftermath of the Great Malfested War, saddened by the current state of the world and of the human race, Azwel begins his mission to save humanity. He first encounters the , who are falling out when and brought out the revived Azure Knight to kill . However, Azwel's sudden intervention forced the two renegade Time Jackers and Nightmare to retreat. Azwel offers Swartz to join in his crusade to save the human race, but Swartz bluntly declines. In response, Azwel used the shards of both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur from his gauntlets and stabbed Swartz with throwing knives produced from his gauntlets. Instead of killing him, the fragments of the Soul swords from his device brainwashes Swartz, causing him to become Azwel's right hand man against his will. He later appears in the middle of the battle between the Kamen Riders (Taki, , , , Grease Blizzard, and G7 Icarus XYZ) against two Another Riders - Another Skyrider and Another Super-1 before revealing that he is the one who created them alongside with the brainwashed Swartz. In addition, he summoned and as they joined with him and battled the Riders and singlehandedly defeated Taki, G7 Icarus XYZ, and Grease Blizzard; while Skyrider and Super-1, featuring their Another Rider counterparts defeated Zi-O, Geiz, and Woz. It is later revealed that Azwel kidnapped the Showa Riders (except for and ) in order to serve him against their will and free them from the burden of their battle against the forces of evil that created them. Another Amazon; Return of Fourze and Meteor want to take. And I regretfully remind you that there will be no other options. Which will you save? or a that generations admire the most? Are you willing to sacrifice one of your own friends to save another? You choose between your friend and Kamen Rider Amazon. If you destroy Another Amazon, the original dies. Or, are you willing to sacrifice your own friend if you want to keep a fellow Kamen Rider alive? Choose carefully...|Azwel giving Gentaro two options: Save Tomoko, Amazon will die. Or, sacrifice his own friend to save a fellow Rider.|A.D. 2019: Amanogawa Astral Fissure}}to be added Swartz's Schemes Exposed; Another X, Raphael's Perfect World into an Another Rider just to kill us? You're sick!" "Me, sick? How hypocritical. I have heard everything from Swartz that you people are messing with time so you plan to crown a demon king to dethrone an in the future... Well, I can fix that. Starting by educating you Time Jackers. Because of your actions, you have deprived the of their future! And the reason I have come into this era is to right all of humanity's wrongs and free them from their shackles." "Screw you! Like hell we would believe that a pompous clown like you save the human race!" "I'll demonstrate. But, don't take this too personally. And Swartz will demonstrate to you the painful lesson what it's like to be judged for your sins.|The ( and ) confronting Azwel after finding out he turns Swartz into Another X|A.D. 1589: Perfect World}}to be added Amy, the Winter Rose to be added Confronting Kamen Rider Decade and Oma Zi-O really mean of becoming a king?! You bring the whole world to its knees and wipe out half of the world's population?" "...And I call it mercy." "You uncaring, callous tyrant... How dare you defile my beloved humans!|Azwel as he confronted the .|A.D. 1973: Power and Skill, V3!}} New Plans to Save Humanity 1= . Over time, kings will be corrupted by the power that bestowed to them, and they have no qualms in abusing that power to stroke their own ego! I've seen that in |Azwel speaking his contradiction of Sougo's predestined fate as a demon king.|A.D. 2019: Infinite Emperor Dragon}} |-| 2= . Since then, I couldn't help lament if there is hope for the human race will be saved? Despite what Oma Zi-O say about humanity as their own monsters, it doesn't matter; what's important that they don't deserve such cruelty and be deprived of dignity and freedom! And I once planned a key to free humanity from its shackles: the Ultimate Seed, that is until, I lost to a nameless warrior... I don't know when I can start over again.|Azwel reveals his reason to save the human race.|A.D. 2019: Infinite Emperor Dragon}} |-| 3= to be added Another Shin to be added Another ZO & J; Near-Apocalyptic Scenario to be added The Future Seed to be added Last Wish & Death and Taki on their respective allies before dying|A.D. 2019: Azwel's Last Wish}} to be added Personality Azwel is, at best, a well-recognized genius who possesses mannerisms of a playwright. But, he is also flamboyant, insufferable, and pompous at worst. His defining trait is his dedicated love for the human race. However, for all his claims to "save" humanity, Azwel in truth, is a maniacal sadist who delights in psychologically and emotionally torturing his opponents, especially through his experiments. His prejudiced views of the Malfested is somewhat warped and more of out of spectacle than of morality. This does not, however, mitigate the justification of his actions in that he's no different than any other Malfested. Azwel is also cunning and manipulative, as shown when he forces Grøh to fight Curtis after turning the latter into a Malfested, and even luring Raphael to the Soul Edge on purpose knowing that those insane enough to pursue it will succeed in obtaining Soul Edge and end up becoming a slave to the evil blade. In Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time, Azwel also expresses his distaste towards the exploitation of time travel. After having observed the Kamen Riders' meddling with the World of Soulcalibur's new timeline, Azwel sees the several time paradoxes in the timeline as "depriving humanity of their future." This is shown when he turned into Another X to "educate" the to punish them for their meddling with the timeline. For all his twisted and fanatical love for humanity, Azwel is not entirely bereft of humane and sympathetic qualities, as suggests that there is also a shred of goodness within Azwel. This was shown after when he was thrown into the future by Kamen Rider Decade, where he bear witness to the dystopian era where rose to power as a nigh-omnipotent tyrannical ruler; showing that he absolutely despised the depravity and oppression of Oma Zi-O's rule, seeing it in general as depriving of their freedom and their desired future. Azwel also has witnessed countless bloodshed, violence, tyranny, and oppression in the past long before the Evil Seed began; which motivated him to become a savior to the human race. Even after he was singlehandedly defeated by Oma Zi-O in the future, Azwel states that he refuses to give up on his goal to save humanity from their self-destruction, even if his ideals contradict with that of the Kamen Riders. Powers and Abilities *'Genius-Level Intellect:' Azwel's defining trait is his extraordinary intelligence, hence being a scholar in many fields including history, medicine, literature, and warfare. **'Poetry Expertise:' Befitting his bombastic personality, Azwel has a tendency to pepper poetry during combat. **'Vast Historical Knowledge:' Azwel is said to possess vast knowledge of world history in both past and present. **'Astronomy Expertise:' Azwel is revealed to have a vast knowledge involving celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. *'Time Travel:' In an interesting case, Azwel is shown to be capable of traveling back and forth in time using his Palindrome gauntlets. *'Practical Application of Martial Philosophy and Theory:' Azwel's fighting style. This style grants the unique ability to produce dual swords, a giant axe, and a spear-and-shield combination out of thin air. Not technically a fighting style per se, the combat techniques used here are a product of Azwel's "martial philosophy and theory," and the weapons crafted from a special device he made in his pursuit of "saving" the human race. In spite of his knowledge and the power of the swords, Azwel lacked any fighting ability and this would prove to be troublesome. To be able to use his weapons effectively, Azwel also uses the data retrieved from the waves of Palindrome call forth the memories of past fighting styles, due to the soul swords essentially being information in condensed form. This gives Azwel countless forms of martial arts to draw from as he is tapping into the data collected by the cursed and spirit swords across history and using them to create an unpredictable string of attacks with his weapons that leads to a non-rigid style of fighting. **'Soul Edge and Soul Calibur empowerment:' Given that his gauntlets are imbued by shards of the two Soul Swords, Azwel can wield the two powers of the swords altogether. Azwel can manifest different kinds of weapons from the Palindrome gauntlets. According to Elysium, in addition to manifesting various weapons, when the Palindrome gauntlets are unleashed in its full potential, Azwel can create perfect copies of both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, as shown through his Soul Charged Critical Edge in the game. **'Astral Fissure absorption:' Azwel's gauntlets also give him the ability to absorb the energies emanating from Astral Fissures, which also essentially removes the fissure as well. *'Time Alteration Immunity:' While Soul Edge and Soul Calibur are unaffected by temporal alterations in the Soulcalibur VI timeline, this is now applied Azwel himself due to having harnessed fragments of both swords, rendering him unaffected by any other form of space-time anomaly. Meaning, the powers from both Soul swords gives him to exist independently of time itself, while immune by the changes in his own past. *'Brainwashing': Azwel is capable of using the fragments from both Soul swords from his gauntlets to brainwash his victims. This was best shown when he uses a fragment of Soul Edge on Curtis into manipulating him to fight Grøh. He can use both powers of the Soul swords to brainwash his targets without turning them into Malfested, best shown when he mind-controls . The same can be said with the whom he held prisoners. As a result of him and Swartz creating the Showa , they serve as a catalyst for brainwashing the original Riders into his servitude. *'Time Manipulation': Azwel somehow gains the ability to freeze or rewind the flow of time, something that he is not able to do so in his canon series. This was granted to him by Swartz as the latter is the only one capable of bestowing time manipulation powers. Since he brainwashed Swartz into becoming his subservient right-hand man, it's most likely that he forced him to give him these powers. Weakness *'Riders with enhanced forms': Despite having possessed the fragmented powers of both Soul swords, Azwel can be outclassed by Riders who possessed forms stronger than him, even when in his transcendent form (Soul Charge). The following Riders who can surpass him are the following: **' Ginga': Azwel can be overpowered by Woz Ginga (regardless of either forms) due to the latter's ability to manipulate spatial, planets, and cosmic energy. **' ': Kamen Rider Decade can easily counteract Azwel's martial philosophy and theory accordingly to the KamenRide cards used: i.e., , , , and . **' ': Azwel's use of manifesting several weapons have no effect on Oma Zi-O whatsoever, let alone unleashing the Palindrome gauntlets at maximum power to create perfect copies of Soul Calibur and Soul Edge. This is due to the fact that Oma Zi-O having possessed not only nigh-omnipotent powers, but also the 19 Heisei Riders' Ridewatches, as well as the Ridewatches of the (from to ). Additionally, Oma Zi-O also possesses his own Soul Edge, thus solidifying the moot point of Azwel's ability to manifest perfect copies of the Soul swords. Weapons *Palindrome - Chaos & Order (Bipolar wave amplifying gauntlets) Gallery File:AZWEL.jpeg|Official artwork from Soulcalibur VI Azwel portrait.jpg|Character portrait in the game's story mode. sc6_azwel.jpg aswel1_EN_1535367814.jpg|Azwel's Hypothesis. Behind the scenes Portrayal Awzel is voiced by |江原 正士|Ebara Masashi}}, who would later voice in . In the English dub, he is voiced by Taliesin Jaffe, who also voiced the character in Soulcalibur VI. Notes *Personality-wise, Azwel serves as the Soulcalibur counterpart for /Kamen Rider Genm. Kuroto is best known for his over-the-top god complex, while Azwel is a dark messiah known for his twisted love for humans. They are also prone to laugh in a maniacal fit. **Azwel also has similarities to , the antagonist of the of . Both even mention the concept of the Riders fighting the very villains their powers/orgins are tied to. Given Azwel's role in Book 2, the Cross of Fire has become an underlying theme of the story. *Azwel serves as a foil to as they are set to be antagonists of the second season of Taki Gaiden: The Kunoichi Who Leapt Through Time: **Azwel is considered as a messianic figure dedicated to protect humanity. Whereas Oma Zi-O ruled the world with an iron fist. *In the game, Azwel is infamous for having the most longest win quotes in series history, most of which are accompanied with a mad laughter. (see above) The second lines are not included in the subtitles. When playing as him in Arcade mode, the entire dialogue is skipped into the next battle. The whole dialogue can be heard by either finishing Arcade Mode or after the end of a VS Mode battle. *In Soulcalibur VI, Azwel served as the final boss for Grøh's character episode and the main antagonist of the the game's Libra of Souls storyline. *In the story, Azwel is given a more three-dimensional characterization compared to his video game incarnation. In the game, Azwel's maniacal and sadistic personality solidified him as a irredeemably evil villain. While his appearance in Taki Gaiden gave his personality and goals a more sympathetic light due to the presence of the and a brief confrontation with after he was thrown into the future by . Appearances External links *Azwel in Soulcalibur Wiki for the overall character overview. Category:Taki Gaiden Characters Category:Characters Category:Antivillains